The New PlayStation Commercial Is The Ultimate Kind Of Fan Service.

A mysterious teaser appeared on the platform holder's YouTube channel, laced with fan service and tempting us to "look beyond the door on October 5th". The video went on to spark massive conversation within the gaming community, with more than two million fans speculating about the imminent announcement of a new console or more.

The doors have now been opened, with Sony revealing its latest commercial under the company's "Long Live Play" marketing mantra. The advertisement is a celebration of PlayStation fans, placing numerous iconic characters together in a run-down bar's backroom. Nathan Drake (Uncharted) chats with Lightning (Final Fantasy). Cole MacGrath (inFamous) addresses Solid Snake (Metal Gear Solid). Isaac Clarke (Dead Space), Ghost (Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2) and Agent 47 (Hitman) group together, while Ezio Auditore (Assassin's Creed) provides a fleeting monologue. There are more than 25 characters in total in the advert, with obscure references such as a Chell (Portal 2) and Sackboy (LittleBigPlanet) blended into the background.

Each of the characters is there to champion an omnipotent everyman called Michael, a PlayStation fan that represents all of us.

The commercial was created in collaboration between Sony and an ad firm called Deutsch. The advertisement was created over the span of 5 months, with massive input from a variety of developers and publishers.

"There was a little bit of reticence at first, but because people liked the idea so much, they trusted us," Deutsch's executive creative director Jason Elm told FastCompany. "Sometimes we had to beg a little, and sometimes they were right on board.

"No one has ever done a spot with multiple characters from many different games. No one has ever done anything with all those characters in one commercial, especially live action," he continued. "There was a lot of headscratching about whether we would be able to pull this off. We didn't want this to feel like a costume party."

A 60-second edit of the commercial will debut in North America during Sunday and Monday Night Football. "We are focusing on a teen boy gamer, and we are going to be very aggressive in the media vehicles that target audience is either in or connected to," vice president of product marketing at SCEA, Scott Steinberg revealed, adding that the company expects about 50 million impressions of the commercial before the campaign has run its course.

We actually really like the commercial, short of a few costume inconsistencies. Kratos for example looks completely out of place which is a shame. But with Kevin Butler dominating PlayStation marketing for so long, it's nice to see Sony take a step back towards the big-budget creativity that defined the PSone and PS2 eras. Response around the 'net has already been massively positive.

You can watch the commercial after the break. For more information on its development, check out the FastCompany's report.